9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best show on television, Nov 4 2008
By James D. Langer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: CSI - Seasons 1- 8 (DVD)
It's Thursday night; it's almost 8:00 p.m. Lock the doors, take the phone off the hook, disable the door bell, and turn the cell phone off. The show's about to start; "Who are you, who-who, who-who? Who are you, who-who, who-who? I really want to know, Come on tell who are you, you, you, are you!"
That is the theme song for my favorite show, CSI Las Vegas. I can sit and watch that show for hours on end trying to figure out who killed him, who raped her, or who kidnapped the little boy. I love how they almost always are able to catch the bad guy by using all of their high-tech devices that they have, like the Tecan Freedom EVO 150 liquid handling workstation, which computerizes the removal of DNA or the gas chromatographs which separate mixtures of chemicals so they can tell what the mixture is made of. There are hundreds of gadgets that they use on the show, all of which are real (all of which were either bought or donated to the show by other crime labs across the United States).
The cast, in my opinion, could not have been picked any better. Gil and Greg are two of the best characters in the show. I like Gil because during each episode he continues to show just how smart he actually is. He continuously thinks outside the box to solve the toughest cases, and he really thinks things through before anything ever comes out of his mouth. Greg is my favorite character in CSI because he makes his work fun, especially in the first couple seasons that he was on the show. He is always telling jokes, dancing to his music, or trying to make light of any situation that he is in.
The cast has had almost all of the same people since the first season, and the show has been on the air for eight full seasons; I have seen every one of those episodes while it was on television, and as soon as they came out as a season boxed set, I bought them so I could watch them again. Having them on hand gives me something to do when I am not able to do anything else. For example, I got my wisdom teeth out this summer and the doctor said that I wasn't supposed to do anything for at least a week so I sat on the couch and watched a full season while I was on bed rest.
CSI is the best show on television not only in my view, but in the eyes of millions of viewers across the United States. The show has been ranked in the top five for most watched show in eight of nine seasons; so far this year, it is the most watched show on television. CSI has also won four Emmy's to this date and has been nominated for almost thirty. Very few shows on television even come close to CSI.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Origins of CSI programs....and still the BEST!, May 25 2009
By JB "betterfed" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: CSI - Seasons 1- 8 (DVD)
I am one of those unique people who NEVER watches broadcast TV. I have NO CABLE, NO SATELLITE, and my old antennae is currently a bird perch on my roof.
I rely completely on DVD COLLECTIONS such as this for our evening entertainment.
NO COMMERCIALS is the reward for our patience in waiting for these collections to be released to the public, and it is well worth it! We have purchased the complete ensemble of CSI series, including this original, CSI Miami, and CSI New York; and now are awaiting the arrival of NCSI starring Mark Harmon about the U.S. Navy Criminal Investigative Analysis Unit.
So far, this original is the BEST. William Peterson, of "Manhunter" fame [the original Hollywood movie about Serial Killers] is absolutely excellent in his droll, cool, and calculating portrayal of Gil Grissem, the head of the Las Vegas CSI unit. Marg Helgenberger as his first assistant is delightfully sardonic in her wit, and impressive in her tenacious approach to solving crimes and uprooting the "Perps."
Like ALL the CSI shows we have watched so far, the one thing that is laughable is that these crews are always there for the final arrest. We doubt these CSI guys in real life ever put the cuffs on anyone, but that exaggeration is forgiven to make the shows more concise and exciting.
So far, we have watched Seasons 1 thru 2, and are anxiously awaiting digging into 3 through 8. The writing is at times too cliche, but more than not rises to excellence when a crime personally touches one of the CSI team members.
An excellent bargain for eight years of a fine Crime genre series, Amazon has done it again for the best entertainment available on DVD's.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Original is still the Meatiest., May 7 2010
By Cleo - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: CSI - Seasons 1- 8 (DVD)
The Pilot episode is the first appearance of Paul Millander.
Since CSI is rerun on a near daily basis, I debated whether this series was really worth owning. After rewatching the pilot episode and some CSI: Miami and a few CSI: NY, I realize how much better CSI is than its spin-offs. From the get-go, this series has placed the Warrick character in purgatory where he consistently takes the Goofus turn in the road to Nick's Gallant decisions. The Warrick character suffers from a lack of the Calleigh Duquesne influence - there's no one to tell him that his mistakes will lose him respect and tell him in a way as if respect matters - the Catherine Willows character just enables him. But this may also be a difference in the characters of Miami and Vegas. Miami is a strong immigrant contrasting against incumbent culture whereas Vegas brings the likes of Pahrump to the American consciousness. Sometimes, the Vegas CSI feels like Last Exit to Brooklyn.
If CBS just issued the Lady Heather episodes plus "19 Down", then that set would be a must-buy for me. As it is, a set of the first 8 seasons isn't going to get you all of Grissom or Lady Heather.
The Lady Heather episodes are:
* Season 2 episode "Slaves of Las Vegas"(11-15-2001)
* Season 3 episode "Lady Heather's Box" (2-13-2003)
* Season 6 episode "Pirates of the Third Reich" (2-9-2006)
* Season 7 episode "The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix" (5-10-2007)
* Season 9 episode "Leave Out All the Rest" (11-6-2008)